Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-04-20
SERMON on REY. DR.. TALMAGE LAST SUNDAY

eONhis hLLOWSHIP, ANl1hAS o1 La
Dor. GREEK ALPHABET AND OTHER soc1E-
TIES PIN soLoMON's TIME PEOPLE BLABB-
| ED-soLoMoN HAD A LARGE DOMESTIC CIR
| CLE-THE NECESSITY OF KEEPING SECRETS
BUT LET NO MAN SACRIFICE LIFE TO SECRET
SOCIETY LIFE.
BROOKLYN, April 1.-THE Rev. 7. Dewitt
Ialmage ID. D., announced to his congregatlou
| TO day that as the Brooklyn Tabernacle has
been upcomfortably crowded for many years
| the trustees have purchased the adjoining
sunday sci sr yiI 6e built Which on
Sabbaths can be opened into the main audi
torium. thus giving room for at least thou,
people are crowded into the present building;
1850 of these in pews, and l.5OO sealed IN aisles
and standing. The Improvement will add
The subject of DR.. Talmage's sermon to day
was What is the Moral Effect of Free Masonry.
Odd Fellowship, Knights of LABOR. Greek
Alphabet ana other Societies 2" The text was
| from Proverbs, XIV, 9: "Discover not a secret
to another" DR.. Dalmage said:
| 1t appears that in Solomon's time, as IN al
subsequent periods of the world, there were
people too much disposed to tell all they
vealing the case of their patients, lawyers ex-
| posing the private affairs of their clients
| neighbors advertising the faults of the next
| door resident; pretended frienos oetraylng
| condolences. One-half of the trouble OF every
| community comes from the fact that so many
| people have not capacity to keep their mouths
| shut.
When hear something disparaging OF you
my first duty is not to tell you But II l tell
| go out and tell everybody else what L told you,
| and they go out and tell others what told
them that told you. and we all go out. some
| to hunt up the originator of the story and
| others TO hunt it down we shall get the whole
community talking about what you did do
| and what you did not do, and there will be as
many scalps taken as though band of Modoc
| had swept upon a helpless village. We have
two ears but only one tongue. physiological
inn hot U1ernf to
more than we tell. Let us join conspiracy
that we will tell each other all the good and
| nothing of the Ill., and then there will not BIT
| such awful need of sermons Solomon's
words: Discover not secret to another"
Solomon had very large domestic circle
In his earlier days he had very confused no.
| lions about monogamy and polygamy, and his
| multitudinOus associates lin the matrimonial
state kept him too well informed as TO what
was going on in Jerusalem. They gathered up
all the privacies OF the city and poured them
| into his ear. and his family became SOrOsis
or female debating society OF seven hundred
| discussing day after day all the difficulties
| between husbands and wives, between EN-
ployers and employees, between rulers and sub
jects. until Solomon, in my text, deplores
voiubility about affairs that do not belong to
us and extols the virtue of secretiveness.
| By the power of a secret divulged families,
| churches, neigh bOrhoOds, nations fly apart
| By the power of a secret kept great charities
socalities, reformatory movements and Chris
| tian enterprises may be advanced Men are
gregarious-caltle in herds, fish in schools,
| birds in hocks, men in social circles. You
may by the discharge of gun scatter q flock
| of Quails or by the plunge of the anchor SEND
| apart the denizens of the sea, but they Will
| gather themselves together again. Ii you. by
| some new power. could break the associations
| in which men now stand, they would again
adhere. God meant it so. He has gathered all
| the flowers and shrubs into associations You
may plant one forget not or hearts ease is
alone, away off upon the hillside, but it will
| soon hunt up some other forget me not or
| hearts ease. Plants love company. You will
find them talking to each other IN the dew. A
|
company. You sometimes see man with no
ut-branchings of sympathy. His nature l.
which the most agile sailor could never climb
Others have Thousand roots and Thousand
branches. 1nnumera6le tendr1ls climb lheir
hearts, and blossom all the way up, and the
| fowls of heaven sing in the branches. In con-
sequence of this tendency wefind men coming
| together in tribes, in communities churches
| in societies. some gather together to cultivate
| the arts, some to plan for the welfare of the
State. some to discuss religious themes, some
craft. SO every active community is divided
| into associations of artists. of merchants, Of
bookbnders, Of carpenters, of masons. OF
you cry out against it2 Then you cry out
| against tendency divinely i'm planted. Your
| TRADES would accomplish no more than il you
| should preach to a busy ant hill or bee hive
| long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the oft-dlscussed question
| whether associations that do their work with
closed doors and admit their members oy pass
| wo DIS, and greet each other with secret grip
are right or wrong. l answer that 1t depends
| they meet. Is it to pass the hours IL revelry.
wassail, blasphemy aud obscene talk, or 10
| plot trouble TO the State, or to debauch the in
| nocent then / say with an emphasis that DO
man eau mistake moi But is the object the de-
fence of the rights of any class against oppres-
| sion, the Improvement of The mind the en-
! Iargement of the heart, The advancement OF
art. he defence of the Government, the extir-
patton of crime or the kindling ola pure heart
| ed sociality, then say, with just as much en-
phaSls, yes.
There is no need that who plan ior the
| conquest of right over wrong should publish
| to all the world our Intentions. The general
of an army never sends to the opposing troops
| in formation of the coming attack. shall we
| VINO have enlisted in the cause of God and hu-
| mainly expose our plans 10 tue enemy? No!
we will in secret plog the ruin of all the enter
prises of satan and his cohorts. When they
| expect US by day we will fail upon them by
| night While they are strengthening Their
left wing we will double up their right. By
| plan of battle formed in secret oonciave we
| will come suddenly upon them, cry ing: THE
| sword of the Lord anu OF Gideon Secresy OF
| plot and execution are wrong only when the
| object and ends are nefafious. Every family
| is a secret society, every business firm and
| every banking and insurance institution.
Those men VINO have no capacity to keep Sc
| cret e unfit for positions OF trust anywhere.
| There are thousands of men whose vital need
| is cuturing a capacity to keep secret. Men
| talk too much, and women, too. There is
time to keep silence as well as q time to speak.
| Although not belonging to any of the greal
| secret societies ABOUT which there has been SO
much violent discussion have only words of
| praise Tor those associations which have fol
| their object the maintenance of right againS
wrong, or The reclamation of -1neoriates, or,
| like the scoreOf mutual benefit societies called
| by different names. that provide temporary
relief Tor widows and orphans and tor men in
capac tated by sickness or accident from earn
| iug a livelihood. Had it not been for the large
| number of secret labor organisations in this
country monopoly would lOngago have, under
| its pOnderous wheels, ground the laboring
| classes IN to an intoleTarle servitude. The men
who want the whole earth to themselves would
| have got it before th is had it not been for the
| banding together of great secret organisations.
| And while we deplore many things that have
| been done by them. their existence is a neces
| sity, and their legitimate sphere distinctly
| pointed out by the providence of God. Such
| organisations are trying to dismiss from their
| associations all members in favor OF anarchy
| and social chaos. They will gradually cease
anything like tyranny over their members ana
will forbid violent Interference with any t1lans
work, whether he belongs to their union or is
| outside of il, and will declare their disgust
| with any such rule SIS that passed in England
1 by the Manchester Bricklayers' Association,
| which says any man found running or work
| ing beyond regular speed shall be fined two
shiiingS and siXpenIe for the hr-t offence, five
| shillings for the second, ten shilings for the
third, AID if still persistng shall be dealt with
| as the committee think proper. There are Sc
cret societies in our colleges that have letters
| of the Greek alphabet for their nomenclature,
and their members are at the very front in
| scholarship and irreprOachable in morals,
| while there are others the scene of carousai,
| and they gamble, and they drink, and they
| graduate knowing a hundred times more
about sin than they do of g omeiry and So
phoceS. In other words secret societies, like
| individuals. are good or bad, are the means OF
| moral health or of temporal and eternal dam
nation. All good people recognise the vice OF
slandering an individual, but many do not see
| the sin of slancering an organisation.
| There are old secret societies in This and 9TH
| err countries, some of them centuries old, which
have been widely denounced as immoral and
| damaging in their influence, yet have nun
dreds of personal friends who belong to them,
| friends who are consecrated to God, pillars In
the church. faithful in all relations OF life, ex,
amples of virtue and piety. They are the Kind
| of friends whom would have for my eXecu-
| tors ii am so happy as to leave anything Tor
my household at the time of decease, anc they
are men whom would have carry me out TO
| the last sleep whenI am dead. You cannon
| make me believe that they would belong to
| bad institutions. They are the men who
would stamp on anything iniquitous, and
| would certainly rather take their testimony
| in regard to such societies than the testimony
| of those who, having been sworn in as mem
bers. by their assaults upon the society confess
| themselves perjurers. One of these secret So
Gle les gave for the relief of the sick in 1873, IN
this country, ST. "a. Some of these societies
| have poured very heaven of sunshine and
| benediction into The home of suffering, Sew,
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